Hamas leader and MP Yehya Mousa asserted that the land of Palestine is indivisible, and the occupation shall not hold any piece of it.

“Palestinians are entitled to their land and they will give up not one inch,” he stated.

He stressed that Palestinians inside the occupied lands of Palestine and in the diaspora are one people, adding that Palestinians hope for a united leadership that fulfills their national agenda and leads them toward liberation.

Palestinian Land Day is an annual event which takes place on March 30 to commemorate the events of 1976, when a general strike and marches were organized in the Arab towns of the lands of 1948 in response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land.

Six unarmed protesters were killed and hundreds wounded as the Israeli occupation police attacked the peaceful demonstrations.

March 30th, 2016 Comments Off on PFLP: On Land Day, we affirm that the Palestinian struggle is for a united, democratic, liberated Palestine

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
PRESS RELEASE

As we commemorate Land Day this year, the Palestinian people continue their great struggle throughout historic Palestine, in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and Occupied Palestine 1948, together with the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, together marching forward in a militant, democratic struggle for national liberation which will end only with victory, freedom, return and self-determination.

March 30 is a date of great significance in the Palestinian national liberation movement. On this date in 1976, the Palestinian masses in the Galilee, the Naqab, and the rest of Occupied Palestine 1948, as well as the Palestinian masses in the lands occupied in 1967 and in the diaspora, rose up against the policy of land confiscation by the Zionist state. The Palestinian people struggled to defend the land that has birthed and embraced them for milennia, to which they have given their blood, sweat, thoughts and dreams, the place of home, homeland and identity. The Palestinian struggle against the Zionist entity is an existential struggle for liberation; a struggle to liberate the land, for the return of Palestinian refugees at the core of the Palestinian cause, and the central core of the Arab-Zionist conflict. Read more »

March 30th, 2016 Comments Off on Comment by the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, on the killing of a Palestinian man in Hebron

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
PRESS RELEASE

Photo: MaanImages/Zeidan al-Sharabati

GENEVA (30 March 2016) — We are extremely concerned about the apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Thursday 24 March.

Two Palestinian men allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron on Thursday morning, and were both shot during the attack. A video later emerged appearing to show one of the alleged Palestinian assailants, subsequently identified as Abd al-Fatah al-Sharif, lying injured but still alive on the ground. Medical staff were shown attending to the wounded soldier, who was driven away in an ambulance, but did not appear to offer any medical assistance to Mr. al-Sharif.

The video then shows an Israeli soldier shooting Mr. al-Sharif in the head, killing him. What is particularly chilling is the way none of the 20 or so people at the scene, including medical personnel, appear to pay any attention to the wounded man while he was still alive, and also barely show any reaction in the immediate aftermath of his killing. Read more »

A Palestinian report showed that the individual portion of water in Gaza has declined from 91.3 liters daily in 2013 to 79.7 liters in 2014. Over 97% of water in the coastal enclave is not compatible with standards of the World Health Organization for drinking water, the report added.

The report which was prepared mutually by the Palestinian central statistics department and the Palestinian authority of water and issued on the World Day of Water on March 22, revealed that Gazan people receive the minimum level recommended by the same organization which is 100 liters per day for the individual.

Israeli forces control most sources of water in the area and prevent Palestinians from accessing those sources. Israeli practices as well prevent the establishment of sewage treatment stations, the report stated.

It was also pointed out in the report that Palestinians have to buy water from the Israeli water company, Mekorot. The purchased water reached to 63.5 million cubic meters in 2014 with a percentage of 18.5% of the available water.

That is the view expressed by Dr Salah Abdul Al Ati, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (MASARAT), at a seminar held in Gaza City Monday afternoon to discuss the proposal for national unity his organization circulated to all factions and interested parties for comment in February 2016.

Attended by representatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Ahrar and a diverse audience, the seminar saw a spirited exchange of opinions and ideas, giving lie to the supposed repression of free speech in Gaza.

Abbas, Hamas, Oslo, Hamdallah and politicians in general all came in for criticism – along with the Palestinian people themselves.

“The division did not come from another planet,” said Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib, “but as a result of our own mistakes as Palestinians. There is no longer a concrete national project that we all agree on – THIS is what we really need.” Read more »

March 21st, 2016 Comments Off on New Zealand’s venue announced for 2017 Venice Biennale

Press Release – Creative New Zealand

New Zealands venue announced for 2017 Venice Biennale An historic naval warehouse in the heart of the Arsenale exhibition district will be the venue for Lisa Reihanas media-based exhibition at the Venice Art Biennale in 2017. The New Zealand pavilion … Read more »

Head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khaled Meshaal, said that his movement aims to avoid wars, stressing that what is occurring in the West Bank is a popular uprising and what is practiced by the resistance is legitimate self-defence. He also revealed an upcoming meeting with Fatah to resume discussions regarding the application of the reconciliation.

During an interview with France24, broadcast last night, Meshaal said: “Hamas and the Palestinians in general don’t want war. We suffer from occupation and colonisation. Israel is threatening Gaza with war periodically. Israel is starving the Palestinians and killing people in the West Bank by occupation, settlements and the Judaisation of Jerusalem and is threatening to expel Palestinians from the 1948 borders.” Read more »

March 15th, 2016 Comments Off on Moral Haemorrhage from the Wound of Palestine

by Vacy Vlazna
Opinion

Humanitarian law and the law of war are arguably the supreme moral artifacts of Atlantic civilization. Jewish lawyers made a disproportionate contribution to the crafting of both. The resulting legal principles were intended to deter the kinds of injuries and injustices that European Jews and other minorities had long suffered and to protect occupied populations from persecution by their occupiers. Both objectives are very relevant to contemporary Palestine. Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)

The present-day haemorrhaging of international law, and with it, civilised values, has its source in the Israel-US (ISUS) interminable 68 year genocide of Palestine, cheered on and sanctioned by the faux-democracies of the West.

I say ‘faux-democracies,’ as elections notwithstanding and no matter which political party wins, western nations have relinquished civilised principles, international law obligations and their sovereignty over foreign affairs, defense and trade to their ISUS masters.

A case in point: the obligation of states to investigate and prosecute war crimes,

1. It is an accepted rule of customary international humanitarian law (IHL), applicable in any type of armed conflict, that “States must investigate war crimes allegedly committed by their nationals or armed forces, or on their territory, and, if appropriate, prosecute the suspects. They must also investigate other war crimes over which they have jurisdiction and, if appropriate, prosecute the suspects.”
2. This obligation to investigate and prosecute is derived from a number of IHL instruments, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocol I, of which Australia is a signatory.
3. The United Nations General Assembly’s 2005 Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law also restates the obligation. Read more »

Good news: The Palestinian Ministry of Culture decided to recognize our friend Rim Al-Banna. Coming a few days after Women Workers Day, this was a very nice gesture. In other good news, the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem concluded successfully. More and more Christians are recognizing Israel for what it really is: a racist apartheid regime that is as anti-Christian as it is anti-Muslim (and even anti-Jewish).

The G4S security company will close their offices in Tel Aviv and will stop supporting Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners including children. This is a direct response to the BDS movement.

And Bernie Sanders wins Michigan primary against AIPAC stooge Hilary Clinton (yes, the large American Arab population, Christians and Muslims voted for a Jewish guy 🙂 Read more »

Al-Qassam Brigades mourned the two children from the Abu Khoussa family who were killed in Israeli air strikes on Saturday, affirming that their innocent blood will not be wasted.

In a brief statement issued on Saturday March 12, 2016 the Brigades mourned the two children, Israa and Yassin Abu Khoussa, who were killed while asleep in their beds at dawn, and sent wishes for a speedy recovery to a brother also wounded in the airstrikes.

The Brigades stressed that the children’s blood will not be in vain.

“The occupation must know that patience of al-Qassam Brigades and the resistance factions has its limits,” the Brigades said.